What It's like to be a newby in the Crypto World - The good the bad and the ugly

Hey All,

So I have been thinking a lot of my journey so far in the Crypto World, the highs the lows and the dull days. I started in Crypto after watching a documentary on Bitcoin a year or so ago on Netflix. The documentary was called Banking on Bitcoin. It got me really interested in the coin and it's potential. The serial explores the ups, down's trials and tribulations as well as the scepticism around the Bitcoin world. Very much worth a watch if you have Netflix.

Find more info about the documentry here

So I go ahead and start looking at different ways to get into the market. The first thing I find is that there are very few brokers out there. I sat there wondering if there is a good reason for this. I wonder if it is all still dark web and silk road, do I really want to get involved in some money scam or get alienated by some hacker that wants to take my hard earned?

Well I am naturally curious and a bit of a risk taker. After several more days of research I find a local broker/ exchange. I created an account (of which was a mission in itself) and sat there and watched the prices fluctuate for a few days. After some careful consideration I asked gave my wife some cash and said, please deposit this to this address. She looked at me weird and I explained as best I could, I explained that this had the potential for financial freedom if I play my cards right. I could see the doubt in her eyes, the doubt was more than warranted. But hey I only deposited $110 and that was never going to break the bank.

So my first deposit went in around September last year, nothing was really going on. I was thinking to myself if I could stay stable and not lose anything for the first few months I would be happy. My first coins were Verge, Verge was a strong holder and had little interest. It fluctuated a little and pushed my dollars up a bit here and there. There were no big gains or drops, that was OK with me, as I was still learning. Because it held so well, in Novemeber I put another $50 in of what I call play money. The play money was so that I could keep Verge as stable and throw some more money and day trade. My simple rule I gave to myself was, hold Verge at all costs, it will be my safeguard.

OK so now I brought anything and everything, the market started to increase and I quickly turned my $50 play money into double that. I day traded like mad with that $50 and kept moving it into the runners in the market. A group of friends and crypto enthusiasts also were on board. They would send messages through group chat and tell us news in the market and what was going on that day. The news was an overload but fun and exciting at the same time. I decided now was the time to turn my Verge, which was still stagnated into more profit, so with that I brought coins like, Ripple, Redcoin, BTC, Monero and others. I couldn't lose.

So now by December I have turned my $160 into $900 and something. Things were looking good. If I could get this sort of return in a few months imagine where i would be in a few years. I was excited and still trading like mad, win some lose some. I wanted to see how far I could take this, so I never invested any more money, I also had a feeling something big was going to happen. The more reading I did, the bigger he fear of the market bursting.

Early this month I heard the Coinbase rumours about Ripple Being added. So I decided to put most of my coin funds into Ripple. I seen so many articles on Ripple it was hard to ignore. Anything from Facebook, Twitter and all of news feeds and forums. I sat in wait until the announcement date but nothing happened. Ripple was not added to Coinbase. I was pretty sure this was a sure thing, but nope, not right now. So I sat on Ripple for another week, but noticed the market gradually declining, Ripple especially was in reverse.

So now it was time for a new approach, my coins were losing value and one of my group told me about Kucoin. This is a New Zealand based Exchange that had more Alts than my current exchange. Ok let's GO KUCOIN :)
So now Im transferring money into Kucoin, Via Bitcoin into a new Alt that has it's initial launch exclusive to this Kucoin site. I'm sitting here thinking that this could be a great way to earn some smashing dollars straight away. I wait until 11pm fully loaded with Bitcoin for the trade to start. The trade gates open, I'm full of excitement, I jump at the first price I see, it is so hard to get, the adrenalin is pumping, I want this coin so badly at a good price. It starts at $2.50 or so, quickly moving up. I jump on it and catch it finally at $12. This things going to the moon. Then reality strikes. I put $200 odd into it at $12 now it drops to $4, wow I just castrated myself. I am so upset that i did that to myself that I had a restless night sleep. Dang, just imagine putting $5000 or $20000 there. So I get up in the morning and find that the coin is still $4 - $5. Not good

So after a couple more days and a lot more reading I'm trying to come to terms with how quickly I had wiped out, I had $900 now I'm down to about $350 or so. I know I'm still above but that ruins the dream LOL. Doing some more reading I come across KIN on Mercatox. Everything about this site screams danger, but hey, not much more to lose now. If I hit rock bottom I may not go back in! So I transfer some to Merctox and keep some still grounded at Kucoin. I but QLINK with that as it seems that team have their head screwed on. So now KIN is on a charge, after it's ICO it made some investors a tonne of money. Little did I realise the availability of this thing is F**king massive. Only realised after I brought it. Then it all happened. The market crash, the re-alignment, the fall from grace, the whatever you like to call it!!! Bitcoin was in a downwards motion, on a road to the bottom and 3 massive dips later it was taking everything with it, damn.

So where does that leave me today you ask? Well no-where really except with a bunch of seemingly worthless coins. But these coins have great potential in certain ways. KIN has a massive ecosystem being built like STEEMIT and QLINK is a coin that will go places if their projects work out. Their team are hard workers. The only thing I can do now is HODL these coins to see if they go up. I did not realise that KIN also at the time was looking at changing algorithms. Im hoping for a massive coin burn, an easy transition into Steller and good futures ahead. Fingers crossed

So now I sit and wait, I wait it out for the net big wave. I watch my friends and others around me fall as much as I did but sometimes a lot lot harder :( and watch them lose countless amounts of money. I heard a story the other day about a guy that maxed out his credit card late December to buy coins, then the market died and now has lost his job. That is so sad, I'm glad I didn't go down that path and I'm hoping you didn't either

Let me know what you think, if you have any suggestions to build back up and if you have a crypto tale, good or bad you'd like to share

Pic Credits
drugsandbadideas.com
capetownguy.co.za
Verge Currency Facebook Page
money.cnn.com
reddit.com
rebubble.com/throwbackgamer

Please like this and follow me if you like what i write here
Please Re-Steem to help my writing and blogging reach greater heights